AP clashes with White House press secretary over question on tariffs

During Wednesday’s White House press conference, a reporter from the Associated Press got into an argument with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt over tariffs instituted by the Trump administration.

Reporter Josh Boak said that Trump’s "big push" while on the campaign trail was for tax cuts, but is "proposing tax hikes in the form of tariffs."

"Not true," Leavitt cut in. "He’s not doing that."

Boak continued, "I’m curious why he’s prioritizing that over the tax cuts."

"He’s actually not implementing tax hikes. Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people and the president is a staunch advocate of tax cuts. As you know, he campaigned on no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, no taxes on social security benefits. He is committed to all three of those things, and he expects Congress to pass them later this year."

"I’m sorry, have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have," Boak stated. "They don’t get charged on foreign companies, they get charged on the importers."

Leavitt said that when the US has "fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades, revenues will stay here, wages will go up, and our country will be made wealthy again."

She continued, "I think it’s insulting that you are trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press."

This comes as the outlet has sued the administration over the decision to revoke the outlet’s access from the Oval Office, Air Force One and Mar-a-Lago after the outlet refused to use the new name Gulf of America for the body of water that the rest of the world knows as the Gulf of Mexico.

A judge in late February declined to temporarily restore the outlet’s access to those areas, and a hearing has been set for March 20 in the case. The outlet continues to have "general media access to the White House press facilities," the White House said.